Threat to sack defecting Senators is exhibition of illiteracy – Ojudu

Babafemi Ojudu

By Wale Odunsi on January 11, 2014

@waleodunsi

Colleagues of Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, have continued to react to his comment that lawmakers who defect to the APC should be prepared to lose their seats.

Reacting to the threat, APC’s Senator, Babafemi Ojudu told Daily Independent that “The planned defection of the PDP senators to our party is now a big headache to PDP leadership in the Senate.


“I can confirm to you that the Senators will join us soon. All the noise that their seats would be declared vacant was just exhibition of illiteracy.

“The law and the circumstances of their defection are very clear. The PDP is in trouble. We are going to welcome them to our party; take that from me,” he stated.

Already, there is palpable unease at the upper chamber of the National Assembly, over plans by some Senators to decamp to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

Efforts by the leadership and presidency to forestall the defection has met brick walls, with rife speculations that the aggrieved Senators may formally exit the PDP by next week when the plenary resumes.

DailyPost has gathered that despite carrots being offered including return tickets in 2015 and juicy contracts, the Senators are reportedly bent on leaving the troubled PDP.

Moreover, the fact that their governors, who were mostly instrumental to their election into the federal legislature are now in the APC, makes the planned exit a done deal.

Source: DailyPost

Obasanjo Withdraws From PDP Activities

Why Opeyemi Bamidele should vacate his seat –Ojudu

Why Opeyemi Bamidele should vacate his seat –Ojudu

JANUARY 11, 2014 

Senator Babafemi Ojudu

The Ekiti State governorship election is approaching and the polity is heating up. Senator Babafemi Ojudu representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District speaks to ADEOLA BALOGUN and GBENRO ADEOYE about the controversies among the major political actors in the state

You used to be an advocate of the National Conference, why the sudden turnaround?

I have advocated a national conference, not just a national conference but a sovereign national conference and that has even been since I was much younger than this. I believe that at one point or the other, we have to sit down, with sincerity and good intentions to discuss our being together and to decide how we want to govern ourselves. And there should be no ‘no-go’ area in the discussion. As far back as 1990 even when I was a journalist, I took three months off from work and joined the Aka Bashorun-led regional committee forum and became the administrative manager of the organisation of sovereign national conference, which was organised by General (Retd) Ibrahim Babangida. I still stand by that today. But when President Goodluck Jonathan came up with his idea of national conference and I looked at it, I started asking what could have been responsible for this sudden change. It’s not that people cannot change their position but when you are at the level that I am, you have access to information. They came up with the idea because of the problems in the Peoples Democratic Party.  They want extra two years for the president, having seen that going through an election next year will not favour their party, so they want to find a way of managing their affairs.

People say you opposed the conference because of APC chieftain, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who publicly opposed it.

No, no, no, I came out before Asiwaju to oppose it. I’ve written several times about it and in one of the lectures I gave about it, I expostulated on national conference and how it could be done. it’s not about Asiwaju, Asiwaju is my leader and what he says guides my action if we have discussed it but being my leader does not mean that I cannot disagree with him. It’s not about Asiwaju, though, I agree wholly with Asiwaju’s position on this. Again, we should also know that Asiwaju will have access to information and know why people are doing this. If there had been no crisis in the PDP, if there had been no merger of parties to form APC and if Jonathan had performed so well that Nigerians would have loved to vote for him, nobody would have asked for a national conference.

APC claims to be progressive but with all manners of characters now coming in, are you still proud to describe APC as progressive?

Some ‘non-progressives’’ will come but the dominant ideology will have the upper hand. Already, anybody coming to the APC knows the character of the party, so when you come in, you also have to subscribe to that ideology. There is also a way to influence them. As they’re coming in, they’re given the manifesto to go and read. They go to seminars and meetings and the kind of things they hear is different from the kind of things they heard in their XY party, and they get influenced and they share ideas.

One thing about APC that Opeyemi Bamidele has spoken about is the lack of internal democracy in the party, not holding primaries or not reckoning with the winner of primaries. How do you reconcile that as a progressive that you claim to be?

It’s not true. Now Opeyemi has gone to the Labour Party, we are waiting for the primaries that will take place in the party that would produce him. Nobody told him that there would be no primaries in APC. The campaign is not starting until March and there is a regulation. The electoral act stipulates when you should choose your candidate, present your candidate and when you should campaign. He should have waited till then to see if there will be no primary in APC. So, it’s not true. Before Governor Kayode Fayemi came in, there was primary and then he won. Some other people who lost felt that they could not allow him to be governor over them and so they left the party. He still won in the governorship election.

Bamidele even said that you went to the Senate on the strength of his own ticket. Doesn’t that make you feel that you don’t deserve to be a senator?

Again, it’s not true. Don’t be sold on lies and as I said, I don’t want to join issues with Opeyemi Bamidele. Anybody who is familiar with Ekiti State and the politics of our party will know that it is not true. Let him bring out his figures. I come from Ado-Ekiti. Ado-Ekiti has 13 wards and there are 15 wards in my constituency. There was no voting in Ado-Ekiti for the primaries; there were acts of violence here and there. At 2pm on the day of the primaries, the party issued a release that the election had been marred by the incompetence of those who were put in charge of it, the violence in Efon and the non-provision of materials in Ado-Ekiti. He (Bamidele) comes from a place that has two wards in Iyin Ekiti while Ado-Ekiti where I come from and had very huge support, had 13 wards and no voting took place there. They wanted to reschedule the primaries and the party said no, we can’t be wasting time. We are going to look at the candidates and we are already running short of time to submit names. We know one of the candidates who can win the general election and it is our decision to choose our candidate. If we continue this process, we are going to either miss the date of submission of candidates’ names or it’s going to lead to further problems. So, that was how the thing was decided and I was chosen. And when they did that, even in the House of Representatives where election had gone well and we already had somebody who had won, on that same day, they said okay, this man, Opeyemi Bamidele, would be good for us in the House of Representatives, and they gave him the ticket. He didn’t reject the ticket. He didn’t say no, this is undemocratic, our leaders have not done well. Generally, I don’t want to be talking about these things because people are not just being sincere. I’ve been involved in Ekiti politics tangentially. When I was even a journalist, I always kept an eye on things. When you’re a member of a society, you don’t turn your back on your society, you keep an eye even when you’re not fully into party politics. I was born there (in Ekiti) and had my primary and secondary education there. I only went to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) for my university education. I go there almost on a weekly basis, I had built a house there long before any of these people thought of doing that. I always help my people. They know me and I know them, I’m a community person.

Even the House of Representatives ticket you spoke about,  Bamidele said he still carries a moral burden up till now.

If somebody gives you human meat and you have a revulsion to eat human meat and you put it in your mouth, are you going to swallow it or spit it out? If somebody asked you to do what did not go with your conscience, why didn’t you walk away from it? That is the mark of honour. This is just an afterthought and he still has the chance. He still has a year to go. He could have revolted that he was occupying the seat falsely, but he’s still benefiting from it. He should resign.

Bamidele also complained that all of you sidelined him in the scheme of things; he said that you, Governor Fayemi and Niyi Adebayo (a former governor of Ekiti State and Vice Chairman of APC, South-West) all have your own permutations. He said you still want to become governor.

Let me state categorically here that I have not told anybody that I have an ambition to become governor. The task ahead of me and all of us in APC in Ekiti State is to return Governor Fayemi  as governor. What are we talking about? 2018 is far. Who knows who is going to live tomorrow? How many years are we talking about here? I’m not the kind of person who will get an appointment and start thinking of the next one or get elected and be thinking of the next election. When you give me an assignment, I want to do that assignment first. It’s a self-seeking person that will get an appointment and think about the next big appointment immediately. You get elected and you’re thinking of 2015, 2018, 2020, 2050. God owns your life, give thanks to him when you have responsibility and carry out that responsibility to the glory of God and to the glory of the people who gave you that assignment. If I stop at where I am now and don’t occupy any public office again, I’m satisfied and fulfilled. There are other ways to even contribute to the society, by helping the people who are less privileged. Must you be in a position of authority? Obafemi Awolowo is not being remembered today for sharing ankara but for being a game-changer. These are the kinds of values that should guide us as leaders, not that I brought somebody in, I introduced him to that person, what is in it for me? I was a campaign manager to somebody, they didn’t allow me; they are scheming me out. All that whining does not help the society.

Opeyemi said he was told that Governor  Fayemi is only tolerating you in the Senate.

What is tolerating? I am Babafemi Ojudu and Fayemi is Fayemi; we are collaborating. As long as Fayemi is doing the will of the people, I will sign on to him as a collaborator. We are not husband and wife. We sign on to the same body of ideas and that body of ideas is being translated into reality. We are not drinking pals; he doesn’t drink and I don’t drink. We don’t womanise together, so what is the tolerance all about? There is nothing personal about it. I’ve known Fayemi over a long period of time, so our collaboration didn’t just start when he became governor.

If by next election, the party leaders ask you to rest your ambition and allow Bamidele to go to the Senate, will you agree?

Let me say this, we submit some kind of authority to party leaders. If they came up with a body of arguments and said Femi, rest your ambition in these areas for so and so reasons and it’s in the larger interest of our party, I will. That happens every time now, do you know how many people wanted to become the Lagos State Governor when Babatunde Fashola emerged?

But Bamidele said he had endured as the good boy of the party and that nobody was ready to listen to him or give him a chance.

Somebody is in the House of Representatives and yet nobody wants to give him a chance, is that possible? What would the person he took it from say? Is House of Representatives not any chance?

You claim that Governor Fayemi has done well, but Bamidele said the economy and income per capita is lower in Ekiti today than it was under Governor Fayose, Governor Segun Oni and Governor Adebayo.

He is entitled to his own opinion; I am entitled to my own opinion and the people of Ekiti are entitled to their own opinions. And how do you then know the ruling opinion? You go to an election and present those opinions. The challenge before him is to work on his manifesto- what are these alternatives to what Fayemi has done that he has? Democracy allows everybody and there will be debates before the election. He will tell the world what he can do and Fayemi will tell the world what he has done and the other things he still wants to do. Present your ideas to the world, people then will be allowed to be free to take their decisions.

You and Fayose used to be close friends, what happened between you two?

I was not Fayose’s close friend. Any decent Ekiti person or anybody who is well educated and wants the best for Ekiti will not come out and say I collaborated with Fayose. Rather, I mobilised professionals from Ekiti who felt his regime was not good enough for us and we did what we had to do. I swear I was never chubby with him. If anybody has evidence of what I did, let him come out and say it. No, there is no way. I come from a background of activism, of knowing what is good for the society and what is not good for the society. I am educated and I’ve read quite widely. I know the things that are good for the society and the ones that are not. I know a good leader when I see one and I know a bad leader. I know people who can be a bad influence on younger generations when I see them. And the moment I saw that, I knew that this must not be allowed to go on.

But Fayose too was bitter that he was used and dumped by the present government in Ekiti State despite that he was also instrumental to the coming into office of the governor. Is it a reputation for Ekiti APC to use and dump people?

How? I don’t know the value he added. If I come to you and say support me to become a governor and you support me, what is wrong in that? In supporting me, you heard my manifesto and you knew what I was going to do there. So, if you now came to me thereafter and said I should do something that was opposed to my manifesto and I said no, is that use and dump? So I can’t understand. Let them tell the world, what were their expectations, either Opeyemi Bamidele or Fayose.

Are you saying that they made some demands on the present government?

What I’m saying is that if I canvassed to you and you voted for me, you voted for me because you saw a reason and believed in whatever I said I would do. So if I start implementing, then how does that become using and dumping you? By saying I’ve used and dumped, to me, that means there are expectations, and it should rather be: he said he was going to build roads but he didn’t build the roads. He said he was going to build schools, and so on and he didn’t do so. So if someone comes out and says you have betrayed me because you promised to do these things for the people and you didn’t do them, then we can start debating. But any of them has not come out to say these are the expectations upon which they were betrayed.

But Bamidele said he was your campaign manager.

(Laughs) Okay, we had elections on the same day, so it’s like US President Barack Obama is going for Presidency and somebody else is going for Senate and the person going for Senate saying he campaigned for Obama, does it sound logical?

Bamidele said he and  Fayemi decided on the manifesto that was based on a collective rescue mission, but that  Fayemi reneged on that.

Please come on a visit to Ekiti and do your own private investigations. There are things you can touch and feel and there are things you feel in the environment and then you will be able to make up your mind on how far Fayemi has gone. It is not that I would award him 100 per cent, nobody who has governed any society has been able to succeed 100 per cent but largely within the limit of the resources available, I believe he has done well.

Now that election is approaching, was it right for the APC leadership to make up its mind not to have primary election between  Bamidele and Fayemi?

Have we done so? If he had waited and stayed with the party, our primary would come either by the end of February or in early March. We are just in January and he left the party. Nobody says there will be no primaries, and nobody has pronounced anybody as candidate, except that some leaders came and said we were supporting this person. Somebody can say I’m supporting Fayemi but nobody has chased Opeyemi Bamidele out of the party. I’m interested and I am going to make myself an observer at the primary of the Labour Party in Ekiti State to see who is going to emerge among the contending candidates.

Bamidele already said that he was looking forward to working with Fayemi as ex-governor.

Has he got the ticket yet? We wish him good luck.

You mentioned your background of activism as a journalist, how do you reconcile that with being in the Senate which many Nigerians see as a drain of public funds, with its members earning ridiculous salaries and allowances?

First of all, people saying that lack information. Rather than going around with rumours, I’ve said that they can write to know how much money senators earn with the Freedom of Information Act. If they don’t have the information, they are free to take the matter to court. You cannot have a Senate of 109 and not have people of all kinds of ideas. Any parliament all over the world can boast of people of different ideological viewpoints.

Are you saying that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was ignorant of the information when he came out to say that the National Assembly was consuming a large chunk of the country’s budget?

I’m telling you now that he was wrong, just as he also led the country astray in the last information he provided on the money missing from the oil income. I was one of the people who were outraged when he said over N40bn was not remitted only for him to go before the camera and say that it was an error. I don’t know how he comes by his information, but I’m sorry to say, it does appear as maybe he has axes to grind with the National Assembly and with the President. That’s why he keeps supplying wrong figures.

But he’s the CBN governor, are you saying he doesn’t know what senators earn?

Well, I just told you now that he was wrong in one or was I the one who said over N40bn was missing or was I the one who later recanted?

Even international organisations have said Nigerian legislators earn the highest pay in the world?

Again, I say let the statistics be provided. Don’t let us depend on rumours and things that are not substantiated. And I’ve told you the best way to get the figures out for the sake of our planning, sensible criticism and for all of us. The best thing is for that figure to be obtained and made public.

Why are you afraid of Bamidele? He always says you’re afraid of him.

Afraid? Okay, I’m afraid of him since you have started from the viewpoint that I’m afraid of him. Look, I’m a Nigerian, as a young man, I fought Babangida and went to detention. I fought a former Head of State, Sani Abacha, and went to detention. I’ve opened my mouth and say things that go with my conscience and I’ve never been afraid of being thrown to jail or being killed. Everyday, I wake up and I’m alive, I believe that by the grace of God, no threat can silence me, and you say I’m afraid of Bamidele. If that’s your own conclusion, too bad, because it means you don’t know me. You don’t know who I am, what for? (Laughs) Is it not ridiculous, somebody like me to be afraid of Bamidele?

Do you also carry a moral burden that you are in the Senate on his ticket?

I don’t have any moral burden, he has a moral burden. I know what is mine and where I am and what I’m supposed to do with it. It’s when you steal what belongs to others or appropriate other people’s resources either as an appointee of government or as somebody going for an election and you now flaunt that all over the place, that is when you can have a moral burden. I don’t have any moral burden. I know what is mine and what I’m supposed to do with it.

How was it like being an activist and a journalist and then becoming a politician?

Each time I go to any occasion, I still approach the occasion from the standpoint of a journalist. I still look at it as if I want to report and think within me this will be a good lead and things like that. Sometimes, I have the urge to call my office in Lagos but when I know it’s a privileged information, I have to keep it to myself. But when the information is open, I try to tell journalists that that’s an angle to look at. Sometimes when I see something on the road, I stop to take pictures and report it because I have a Facebook page that is very active. There is still so much nostalgia that I want to do reporting and editing. I also have an active website; I get my aides to write and do some writing myself and put it there. I’m called from time to time to give lectures in universities and address organisations. I’m not sure I can do away with journalism; so when I’m tired of this (politics), I will still go back to journalism.

Do you honestly feel you have done enough as a senator who is accountable to the people?

There are a number of things you do as a senator. One, you attend plenary and make contributions. Two, you work at the committee level. Three, your relationship with your constituency. I want to draw your attention to my website and see the things I’ve done in my constituency. I don’t want to be the judge.  I relate with my people and go home on a weekly basis, although it’s not convenient travelling seven hours on a dangerous road from Abuja to Ekiti. I make sure I attend functions and discuss with them (the people). Go to the National Assembly in Abuja today and ask the people we have to relate with their views about Babafemi Ojudu in terms of what I do at the committee level; raising vital questions, examining documents,  getting documents prepared before going for meetings. You know, also standing on principle at the committee level. Talking about committee work, there are a number of things I’ve done to the benefit of Ekiti that I’m representing. At the plenary, I would love to talk more than I’m talking now but that is not my fault. The President of the Senate has the prerogative to call on whoever he wants and I’m not unknown to the Senate president before my coming to the Senate. Perhaps, the Senate president also knows my viewpoint and the kind of battle I and my organisation had engaged in before coming to the Senate. Even when I raise my arms and legs and everything, shouting, it’s still his prerogative to call me. At a point, I even decided that if I had an opinion, I could push it out to the press, do a press release, write an article about it, make my opinion known, collaborate with others. Sometimes, if you have an opinion, pass it to somebody you know that he will call and then let him express it. But at the committee level, nobody restricts me from talking. I belong to the Committee for Establishment and Public Service which deals with ministries, departments and agencies, either we are probing privatisation or pension, people know how active I could be and the kind of opinion I express. Most of the time, if they are things that their party is concerned about, and my opinion could throw spanner at it, no matter how many times I raise my hands, the Senate President won’t call me. But it’s all politics; it’s allowed in politics. Some are seen as allies and some are seen as enemies. And I don’t have the nature to go and beg people and prostrate or go to somebody’s house in the morning and in the night so that I could be the favoured boy; I don’t have time for that.

So since you members are not ready to disclose how much you earn, why has the leadership of the Senate not come out to deny reports of jumbo pay allegedly paid to its members?

That for me too is a puzzle. Sometimes when people go out to become conveyors of lies and misinformation, some people have different approaches to correcting it. Some will just say- is that what they want to believe, let them believe their lies. And some will say no, we can’t allow this to go, let us fight this. It depends on who you are and how you manage the information. But then, the leadership knows why it is taking that approach.

Source: The Punch

Aderemi Chose Posterity Over Inducements, Says e-11

An Ekiti socio-cultural group, e-11, has described the late Chief Friday Aderemi as a fearless patriot who at the expense of his life strove to free Ekiti State from the clutches of tyranny, profligacy, violence and incessant bloodshed.

According to e-11, the late former Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly stood like an immovable rock while others who were more connected than he was scampered away cowardly with their tales between their legs during the violence-personified Fayose regime.

The group, in a statement by its Chairman, Mr. Femi Ajiniran, recalled that despite the sinful Garden of Eden-like apple being dangled by the despotic regime of the time, Chief Aderemi chose struggle over pleasure, risks over safety and posterity over inducements.

"The life of Chief Aderemi was the opposite of what Nigeria lacks - leaders who would think first of the people before themselves. He has gone down in history as someone who took sides with the masses when almost everyone sided with a violent leader," the group said.

e-11 condoled with the Ekiti State Government, the Aderemi family and all his compatriots in the second session of the Ekiti State House of Assembly who teamed up with him in restoring Ekiti back to the path of honour, praying God to grant them succour at this time of a great loss.


Signed:

Femi Ajiniran
Chairman, e-11

"APC successfully launched in Ondo State!" - by: Rotimi Fashakin - January 8, 2014

Tuesday, 7th January, 2013 marked a major milestone in the political history of Ondo State with the formal inauguration of the Harmonization committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC). The ceremony was supervised by the first executive governor of Ekiti State and interim National Vice-Chairman(sOUTH WEST) of APC, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo in Akure, Ondo State.

Among the State Party leaders present at the epoch-making event were present and past Senators under the aegis of the legacy parties - which include Professor Robert Borrofice, senators Lawrence Ayo, Nimbe Farunkanmi,Titus Olupitan; serving House of represntatives member, Chief Ifedayo Abegunde was also present.

At the end of the proceedings, an election saw the formal appointment of a five-man interim executive. The executive members are:

1, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN -- chairman(Owo LG, Ondo North Senatorial District)
2, Prince Olu Adegboro -- Secretary (Akure South LG, ONDO CENTRAL senatorial)
3, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin -- Publicity Secretary (Akure South LG, oNDO CENTRAL )
4, Chief Tunji Fabiyi --- Organising Secretary (Odigbo, Ondo South Senatorial district).
5, Mr E. Akinwekomi ---Treasurer (Ile-oluji/ Oke-igbo LG, Ondo South senatorial district).

These eminent Nigerians are expected to anchor the leadership thrust of the Party in Ondo State towards galvanising the much needed support of the good people of Ondo state.

Formal registration of new members shall commence soon.
Long live APC!
lONG LIVE ONDO STATE!!
LONG LIVE THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA!!!

Engr Rotimi Fashakin.
Interim Publicity Secretary.

EKITI 2014: Jonathan and My Home State - An Open Letter To President Goodluck Jonathan

By Alofe Sunday

Daily Post, January 6, 2014

Mr. President,

At this time when everyone is writing you a letter, mine is not to hop on the bandwagon, especially as it relates not wholly to your 2015 ambition. But it would do Nigeria, that is if you really care about her well-being, a whole world of good if you could find time out of your busy schedule to peruse this letter by yourself.

Handing this letter to Reuben Abati, Doyin Okupe or Labaran Maku would be tantamount to handing over the Bible to Satan to preach from it.

Your Excellency, bearing in mind your busy schedule, I’m going to be brief. The purpose of my letter relates to my home state, Ekiti. In late 2012, I saw something that scared me to the bone. I was lying on my bed, not sleeping when I saw in a trance revolution written as “reVOLUTION”.

I sought to know the meaning and the interpretation of all respected men of God consulted tallied. Revolution, they say, will start from the a part of the country and burns like a wildfire to the centre. I have only shared this revelation with a few, but given the events of these past few days, it baffles me to no end that Your Excellency has decided to make Ekiti the trigger of that revolution. If truly you believe in God as you claim, then you would refrain from this path you vehemently deny, but evidently endorse.

The governorship election in my state has been fixed by INEC for June and reliable sources say Your Excellency is going the way of Ondo and Anambra States – that is throwing up a candidate who is not from your party and employing state machinery and naked power to ensure such candidate wins. This, some claim, you’re doing in preparation for your 2015 presidential election to create for yourself the image of a democratic president who does not foist his rejected party men on the electorate, but rather ‘impartially’ allow ‘popular’ candidates of other political parties win elections.

Mr. President, not that ‘impartial’ and ‘popular’ are in parenthesis, because in real sense of those words, your chosen candidates have been nothing near ‘popular’ while your action(s) is(are) is far from ‘impartial’. Mimiko could have been said to be popular, but certainly not Obiano. Your thinly veiled partiality in those elections was conspicuously immoral and statesmanly divisive.

As gubernatorial election approaches in my home state, there are several claims that you have anointed Opeyemi Bamidele, a member of the House of Representatives as your ‘Obiano’ of Ekiti State, in utter disregard and apparently loud vote of no confidence on the ability of your party (PDP) aspirants to rise from the rubbles under which your party is dead and long buried in Ekiti State.

Your Excellency may deny this as you did in Ondo and Anambra, sir, but your anointed Southwest PDP leader, the internationally wanted drug baron, Buruji Kashamu, like the case of a trumpet and its blower, re-echoes the whole sinister plan when he stated in Ibadan “I am ready to go if you will stand by me. If you are ready, let us start with EKITI governorship election and make it a sample to them”.

Your Excellency, the likes of Buruji Kashamu might end up being ‘sample’ in the Ekiti election. I assure you, Mr. President, the Ekiti election may eventually be Buruji’s albatross because this time, we will not allow a repeat of the Ayoka debacle.

Your Excellency, whatever dummy Mimiko, Opeyemi Bamidele’s slave master and a czar in the art of lying like his protege, may have sold you contradicts the facts on ground. If you really paid close attention, sir, to Bamidele’s so-called declaration, you would see that no notable Ekiti person was with him on that podium and none is still with him. Even the Ondo State Governor who allegedly has been acting as go-between in winning converts for you in the Southwest and the drainpipe via who slush funds allegedly fly from you to Bamidele was apparently absent, having probably known the futility of the entire enterprise and the un-marketablity of Opeyemi Bamidele who in his almost three years in the House of Representatives has failed his constituency more than your party men who once represented that area.

An independent investigation instituted by Your Excellency in Bamidele’s constituency will confront you with the lies that have become his tendon and sinew. Of all lawmakers in the Southwest, Bamidele’s MDGs projects remain the worst till date. All the acclaimed sites of these projects are either bare or covered with bushes. The coordinator of the MDGs projects in the Southwest will shed more light on this. He will let you know, in addition to whatever investigation you institute, that Opeyemi Bamidele is a lie and the hysteria with which he sells the lie will hurt you and your presidency. Haven’t you pondered, sir, how Bamidele could betray Bola Tinubu, a man who definitely would take up more than 95 percent of Opeyemi Bamidele’s auto-biography whenever he decides to pen his treachery? Haven’t you wondered, sir, how ambition could make a man turn his back on all his friends and kisses his enemies? Will that not be a kiss of death?

Your Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, whatever politics you are allegedly playing with Bamidele, even if you would not heed my advice, be sure to limit what you do or discuss in his presence. Ensure that there is deniability as Bamidele is not to be trusted. If he turned on Tinubu, how can you be sure he would not turn on you? A man who lies to the world and also lies to himself cannot be managed, irrespective of whatever promises you make him. Like Absalom rose to seize the throne of his father, David, such man has no regard for family or friends in the pursuit of self-gain or in seeking his envy-inspired revenge. Such a man is neither driven by principles nor ideology. He chuckles at scruples and turns purple in the face of truth. Mr. President, that is your ‘Obiano’ of Ekiti, but he may yet turn out to be the ‘Omoboriowo’ (or is it ‘Owoboriomo’?) of the 2014 election.

Mr. President, part of Bamidele’s numerous lies is that he scored 47, 000 votes in two local governments (Ado and Irepodun/Ifelodun) which he presently represents during the 2011 National Assembly election while Babafemi Ojudu scored 52, 000 votes in 5 local governments. These figures in themselves are lies and a contrivance of a depraved mind in a lost battle to distort truths. The records are with INEC and can be checked anytime. Babafemi Ojudu polled 63, 747 votes (as against Bamidele’s ’52, 000 votes’ claim) in a keenly contested senatorial election with a former governor of the state, Ayo Fayose and PDP’s Kayode Alufa. Ojudu’s votes surpassed that of Adetunmbi who also defeated the incumbent Ayo Arise by polling 58, 568 votes.

Opeyemi Bamidele recorded 42, 075 votes (as against the “47, 000 votes” lie he is bandying around). The question every sane person must ask Bamidele is whether the quality of his opponents could measure up to that of Ojudu. While Ojudu was pitted against former Governor Ayo Fayose and Kayode Alufa, Opeyemi Bamidele contested against a rogue – a sacked Ekiti State University (EKSU) lecturer who would have lost a departmental election in EKSU. Mr. President, Tope Aluko, the present Ekiti PDP secretary who contested the election with Bamidele was sacked for gross misconduct ranging from results falsification, admission racketeering, cultism and many more from EKSU. It is a fact the man in question has no reputation. This, I tell you, sir, is the same person against whom Bamidele scored 42, 075 votes, a man anyone on the streets of Ado-Ekiti could have beaten. A man with no electoral value, save for thuggery value. Rather than celebrate this ominous failure, Bamidele should cover his face in shame for contesting against a state-reknown rogue.

Mr. President, this is the unmarketable product that we hear you’re patronising. This is the perishable goods that you want to inflict and afflict Ekiti people with.

As president, you shouldn’t be fanning embers of discord. Rather, you should be seen to be of impeccable character, a role model, a leader capable of trust and deserving of trust. A man who believes in Nigerian, not one whose actions seem to say out loud: “I don’t give a damn if I were Nigeria’s last president”.

Mr. President, any attempt to ‘Obianonate' Opeyemi Bamidele, a bad product, in Ekiti will be resisted. Not a million soldiers can handle what may likely follow.

Thank you for your time, sir. My regards to your beautiful wife, Madam Patience, Bipi’s jesus.

Yours faithfully,
Alofe Sunday

 

Fayemi assures workers of improved package

•’We’re on a collective rescue mission’

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has assured workers of improved welfare.

He spoke yesterday during unscheduled visits to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the State Secretariat and the Governor’s Office in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

Fayemi said workers contributed to the state’s growth last year and deserve the best working conditions in the new year.

Describing workers as “the engine room of the government”, he said his visit was to thank them for their hard work and encourage them to do more.

The governor shook hands with the workers and carried the babies of some, who were about taking their children to the creche at the Secretariat.

He was accompanied by the Head of Service, Bunmi Famosaya; the Special Adviser, Governor’s Office, Biodun Akin-Fasae; and the Senior Special Assistant on Policy and Strategy, Biodun Omoleye.

Fayemi said: “This is the first full week of the year, even though work started last Thursday. Generally speaking, most people will not get back to work until the first full week of the year. So the visit is my way of thanking our workers for their hard work and admonishing them to contribute more to the state this year.

“We are on a collective rescue mission and the governor alone, no matter the weight of his office, cannot make a change. He needs the support of all workers, both at the state and local government levels, so that the developmental changes we want can be made.”

He said the visit gave him an opportunity to assess the working conditions of workers, adding that uncompleted buildings abandoned by his predecessor at the secretariat would be completed this year to provide adequate office space for workers.

Fayemi said the secretariat would be fenced to enhance security and assured workers of prompt salary payment.

Source: The Nation